When Jacques Rogge awarded the Olympics to London, six years ago, he changed a
number of lives in unpredictable ways.

One of those lives belonged to Jay Ramirez, a Colombian national who had moved to West London with his mother and sister at the age of 12, and spent much of his free time skating at the Queensway ice rink near Notting Hill Gate.

After careful consideration, Ramirez decided – with some disappointment - that there was no appropriate event for him in the summer Olympics.

But then he realised there was another option open. Perhaps a more remarkable option, given that Colombia has never had a winter Olympian who was born in the country itself. He could train to become an international-class speed skater.

“When I saw that London had been awarded the Olympic Games I was incredibly excited,” Ramirez said. “I love this city, and I'm obsessed with most sports, but at the same time I was pretty disappointed that there were no events that I could take part in.

“Then I thought about skating. Even though I spent most of my teens practicing figure-skating, my coaches had told me that my build was more suited to racing than the technical events.

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“My mind was made up when I found out that I also had the chance to become the first Colombian man to take part in the Winter Games. The only person to compete for my country before was an American-born skier, and she now lives in Switzerland.”

After taking a Foundation in Art and Design at St Martin's, Ramirez turned to a career in retail so that he could pay for his skating. He had the support of the Colombian Ambassador to Britain, but there was one major obstacle still to overcome.

Britain has no long-track speed-skating rinks. Neither, unsurprisingly, does Colombia. So later this month, Ramirez will move to Berlin for the 31 months leading up to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He will train at the Sportforum Hohenschönhausen, alongside members of the German Olympic squad.

This commitment will not just involve long hours of training, but considerable financial self-sacrifice. From being the manager of the Office shoe store in Oxford, as well as a costume consultant and stylist who does contract work in the film industry, Ramirez now expects his next job to be in a bar or restaurant in Berlin. He is heading off to Germany with some savings and a few donations but no other funding.

“With so much talk over the last couple of weeks about 2012, it has really fired me up,” said Ramirez. “But at the same time it is very strange to think that I am about to learn another new language and move to a strange city. It is hard to explain just how motivating the whole Olympic spirit really is”

“A lot of people have thought it strange that a guy who has spent his life living in Colombia and England should want to spend several years training in this unusual sport. The countries who usually do well in speed skating are the USA, Japan, Holland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Canada and South Korea. But I look on it as a a great potential experience and a chance to try and do something that no-one has done.”